Remi Sandri and Babak Tafti Plunge Into Rajiv Joseph's North Pool at Barrington July 26-Aug. 11

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26 Jul 2012

Rajiv Joseph

Photo by Joseph Marzullo/WENN

The East Coast premiere of The North Pool, the new play by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph, featuring Remi Sandri and Babak Tafti, begins July 26 at Barrington Stage Company's intimate St. Germain Stage in Pittsfield, MA.

Joseph is a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo.The North Pool, to play to Aug. 11, is directed by Giovanna Sardelli. The play will be seen at Off-Broadway's Vineyard Theatre this coming season; Sardelli will also direct in New York.

According to BSC, "The truth shifts constantly in this riveting cat-and-mouse thriller about a high school vice principal and a transfer student from the Middle East. Tensions rise and secrets are unveiled in this psychological drama."

The North Pool received a world premiere at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA, in March 2011, under the direction of Sardelli. It won the 2010 Edgerton New American Play Award.

Sandri (playing Dr. Danielson) has appeared in God of Carnage, The Puppet Master of Lodz (Marin Theatre Co), Arcadia, Othello (ACT), Journey to the West, Macbeth, Caucasian Chalk Circle (Berkeley Rep), Someone To Watch Over Me, Violet, The North Pool (TheatreWorks), The Foreigner, The Underpants, The Mystery of Irma Vep (Cincinnati Playhouse), The Kite Runner, The Great Gatsby (Arizona Theatre Co.), A Chorus Line, My Fair Lady, Camelot, 1776 (Geva), among others. He was an Oregon Shakespeare Festival member for six seasons and has appeared at the Utah, Santa Fe, Santa Cruz and Alabama Shakespeare festivals.

Tafti (playing Khadim) is making his BSC debut with The North Pool. Recent theatrical productions include the East Coast premiere of Scorched at ACT and the West Coast premiere of Blood and Gifts at La Jolla Playhouse. Tafti is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.

Joseph's other plays include Animals Out of Paper, The Monster at the Door, The Leopard and the Fox (adaptation), All This Intimacy and Huck & Holden. He has been awarded a United States Artists Grant and the Whiting Award. He is currently a writer on the Showtime television series "Nurse Jackie." He received his B.A. in Creative Writing from Miami University and his M.F.A. in Playwriting from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa.

Sardelli has collaborated with Rajiv Joseph on the world premieres of his plays The North Pool (TheatreWorks), Animals Out of Paper (Joe A. Callaway Award for Outstanding Director), All This Intimacy (both for Second Stage), The Leopard and The Fox (Alter Ego) and Huck & Holden (Cherry Lane). Her recent world premieres include Theresa Rebeck's play Dead Accounts (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park) and Somewhere by Matthew Lopez (Old Globe).

St. Germain Stage is located on the upper level of the Sydelle and Lee Blatt Performing Arts Center, 36 Linden Street, Pittsfield.